1.4.1-Lovethefutureisthine
Brick!Club 1.4.1 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND again we start off with weird translations! I don’t know what’s up with my translation, man. I thought I liked it but we will see. I like it in the digressions, but not the plot so far. ANYWAY. The Thénardiers run a “pot-house” in my translation. I did not know that was a Thing? Unsure why this is so very different from a cook-house. The plaster that is mentioned covering the swing made me immediately think of that poor baby we hear about later on… and the (unintentional?) irony that this plaster apparently commonly covers cathedrals made me angry, since some sort of charitable organization (like those of a church) could have saved that child. I did not realize the first two times around that Fantine is wearing a nun’s hood (at least in my translation) in this scene. There’s so much symbolism there that I can’t process it entirely- atonement for sin, acceptment of punishment, chastity, faith in God, not to mention that this is on the head of Cosette’s mother, and while she cannot entirely save her, it is later a convent that helps strengthen and educate Cosette. "Fantine, as we shall see, possessed the stern bravery of life." This is the character that tears my mom to pieces every time she interacts with the material, and this line sums up exactly why I think it does. It is brave and absolutely terrifying to love selflessly and especially to make sacrifices for this love, and if my mother had fallen in love with a lesser man, she could have been Fantine easily; the love she has for her family is written on her face, and so is the strength that comes from that and the strength she has faced her whole life with. Okay, sorry about that tangent but Fantine is making me a lot sadder and more appreciative this time around than she has in the past. Also there is this thing that I am playing around with if you are in the camp that says Authoral Intent is Not a Thing, which is that the Good female characters in this novel define themselves by more than those they romantically love. We hardly see Favourite interact with the other girls, she just flirts and talks about her love interests, or complains. While we may appreciate her snark, I think we can admit that she probably isn’t a very nice person. I feel like Mme. Thénardier defines herself through her relationship to her husband (which is the danger that we can draw from reading too many romance novels, as opposed to just Hugo’s “It’s a woman thing and therefore weak”), and allows herself to be too subservient (my biggest support for this would be the window scene later on). Contrariwise, Baptistine does works of good on her own, and we will discuss Cosette and the (gray area of?) Eponine later. Anyway, Fantine allowed herself to be defined by Tholomyès, and her downfall of birthing a child out of wedlock comes from that. But she is redeemed by changing her love and her life to being dedicated to that of her child, instead. Feel free to shoot me down on this, because I will either gain support for my ideas or abandon them completely as we read on. But yeah, lots and lots of creys because SACRIFICIAL LOVE and also abuse foreshadowing. Commentary Pilferingapples THE PLASTER THE BABY OH NO I never thought about that connection and now I always will?!? Following your theory— which I like! and I think in general Les Mis is really supportive of making more than one person a priority while still valuing every one-person. But then what about Cosette? Her love for Marius is pretty focused on just him, but then of course she’s also got Valjean, and while she was singly focused on him she WAS a confined character….does it still scan here? I think your theory holds water pretty well and is pretty sensible; OBSESSIVE DEVOTION is never much good for anyone, as Fantine and her Line of Irony are indicating. But then she just redirects all her other previous Tholomyes Fees to Cosette? So— OH NO SO IT RUINS HER. When if she’d reached out a bit more at the right points, tried to make more friends and contacts, she might not have wound up in that last awful phase of life. THIS THEORY MAKES TOO MUCH SENSE. Keep-calm-dftba (reply to Pilferingapples) AAAHHHH OKAY I’ve never actually participated in Brick!Club, only watched in admiration from afar, but I’d like to throw in my two cents on the Obsessive Devotion Sucks for Everyone issue. I certainly agree that Hugo was making the argument that focusing on one person is a pretty terrible way to run your life, and I’d say it holds true with Cosette as well. After all, “Marius possessed one of those temperaments which bury themselves in sorrow and there abide; Cosette was one of those persons who plunge into sorrow and emerge from it again.” (Hapgood translation) So, she doesn’t devote herself entirely to Marius- she mourns what she thinks is his passing and then moves on. Though, interestingly, Marius continues to obsess over her and can’t seem to move on and, well, look where that got him. Pilferingapples (reply to Keep-calm-dftba's reply) YAY WELCOME TO BRICK!CLUB never stop talking! No arguments with either of you here, but I want to try and remember this theory when we get back around to Valjean- after all, his world and engagements shrink from “Mayor of a town” to “this one kid” , and that’s…good ? Does it not count because he’s at the convent? I CANNOT WAIT TO TAKE THIS DISCUSSION BACK UP, degrees of social involvement are a huge topic for me, one of you remind me when we get there?!?